Champions League: First Group Stage
- ManC can’t even see how much each new mistake is damaging them
- Can we be reaching the end of one club always winning the league?
By Tony Attwood
The current club that is generally known as LOSC has as its full name Lille Olympique Sporting Club, and was founded near the end of the Second World War (September 1944) with the merger of two clubs from the same area – Olympique Lillois and Sporting Club de Fives.
They started out as a club known for its dominating style of play when it played other teams, and they developed this into a winning style, taking both the League title and the French Cup in their early years after the conclusion of the Second World War.
After 1948, their power dropped somewhat, but they picked up again and gained a second league title and two cup victories in the mid-century. However, like so many clubs of the period, they then suffered a series of financial difficulties and some scandals and were relegated in 1956.
Thereafter, the club moved regularly between the first and second divisions in France until settling in the top division in the early 21st century, which led to the triumph of a league and cup double in the 2010/11 season. At the start of the next decade, the club moved into a new stadium holding over 50,000 and then won their fourth title in 2020/21. Thus, from a nomadic existence, they turned themselves into one of the major teams in the league.
That was their fourth and most recent league title, which sits alongside their six French cup victories.
The club’s home and away games in the league this season have generally had a positive start….
| P | W | D | L | F | A | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lille Away | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 |
| Arsenal Home | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 |
As a result of this, Lille are now second in the French top division, having played six, won four, drawn one and lost one. They have scored nine and conceded four, thus obviously giving them a +5 goal difference
During the past five years, the club has had a considerable uplift in their form from earlier seasons, and are now generally considered quite a force in the league.
| Season | League | W | D | L | F : A | GD | Pts | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026/27 | Ligue 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9:4 | 5 | 13 | 2 |
| 2025/26 | Ligue 1 | 18 | 7 | 9 | 52:37 | 15 | 61 | 3 |
| 2024/25 | Ligue 1 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 52:36 | 16 | 60 | 5 |
| 2023/24 | Ligue 1 | 16 | 11 | 7 | 52:34 | 18 | 59 | 4 |
| 2022/23 | Ligue 1 | 19 | 10 | 9 | 65:44 | 21 | 67 | 5 |
Lille in the Champions League have lost more games than they have won, although the reverse is the case with the Europa League, Conference League and the Intertoto. Overall, this means that they have played 162 European games and won 62, drawn 45 and lost 55.
This, I think, shows us that Lille is by and large a Europa League-level team rather than a Champions League team, which obviously is an advantage to Arsenal. Add to this the general feeling that the French league is less demanding than the Premier League and Lille is more of a top four or five team, rather than champions.
This is Lille’s ninth appearance in the Champions League and a fourth in eight seasons. The last two have continued into the round of 16, most recently in 2024/25 when they lost 2-3 on aggregate against Borussia Dortmund.
Les Dogues also reached the same stage of the 2025/26 Europa League, going out 0-3 on aggregate against eventual champions Aston Villa. They had finished 18th in the league phase before beating Crvena Zvezda 2-1 on aggregate in the knockout phase play-offs.
According to AI, the furthest LOSC Lille has ever advanced in a major European tournament is the quarter-finals, which they achieved in the 2023/24 Europa Conference League. AI then says, “Their historic run was halted in April 2024 when they were narrowly eliminated in a dramatic penalty shootout against English side Aston Villa.” So they do have a small amount of experience in playing against Premier League clubs.
The club has also reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League on three occasions, in 2006, 2022 and 2025, on each occasion being knocked out of the competition at that point.
The game is, of course, as ever, over two legs.
